Thursday, October 21, 2010

Here's some vid of the practice session which is different than most of the vid I show of just 1-2 clear & open laps. Enjoy. Only ran a 1:19x to get a descent grid spot, then just navigated traffic:

For sessions #2 and #3, I let it fly. Ended up with a personal best of 1:17.4 winning my class by about 1.5 seconds and setting the 4th fastest time of 40 cars.
Session #2, looking backwards:

By Session #3 everyone was agreeing the track was getting pretty greasy. Most were probably like me and using up the last of their old tires to finish out the year?!? I ran a 1:17.5 in this session. Here's vid looking backwards again. Check out the rubber laid down! Running 245's:

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The final event of the NASA MW/GL regions was last weekend at Putnam Park outside Indianapolis. The forecast was to be gorgeous, and it actually turned out HOT! High of 87 Sat with zero clouds.
The NASA MW/GL region does an end of the year banquet now on Saturday night, so Saturday was to be a double-points day for all classes. For TT, that meant we get 1 warmup session as usual; then 2 sessions for 'event #1' and 2 sessions for 'event #2'.

The bad: I unlocked the car early Sat morning to find about 3 gallons of 100octane spilled inside the car - assummedly on the trip there so it'd sat at overnight! Needless to say it was nasty smelling. Fortunately I've removed all the interior carpet so that wasn't an issue. It was also in the mid 40's at this time so scooping up the cold liquid wasn't fun. I did the best I could but quickly ran into another issue - the sound deadening that comes on the floor of the car was starting to dissolve and turn into a tar-like substance. Nasty. I took a putty knife and hammer and scraped out as much as I could in the driver's footwell. The rest I covered with some adhesive paper and (you guessed it) duct tape!

So with the car smelling quite ripe yet - but dry and less sticky - it was time to lineup on grid. Doing my best to breathe fresh air (which is difficult when everyone on grid is trying to warm up their cars and most run catless exhaust including me) and be aware if I got dizzy or a headache... I sat out on the opening warmup lap with 40 other cars on Putnam's 1.8 mile curcuit - needless to say it was crowded. Only ran a 1:19x to get a descent grid spot, then just navigated traffic.

For sessions #2 and #3, I let it fly. Ended up with a personal best of 1:17.4 winning my class by about 1.5 seconds and setting the 4th fastest time of 40 cars. By Session #3 everyone was agreeing the track was getting pretty greasy. Most were probably like me and using up the last of their old tires to finish out the year?!?

Event #2 (sessions #4 and #5) were to take place between 3-5pm. As the track was already feeling rather greasy from nonstop sunlight all day, I decided to change setups. I added a bit of weight (gas) and switched to a wider tire. The car felt more stable and ran a similar time of 1:17.9 which was enough to sweep TTA for the day!

All-in-all a good weekend. I corded the outside of both of my front tires, I believe because I'm driving too hard w/o enough camber. Really looking forward to new suspension and a much more aggressive alignment next year!
I also confirmed my suspicions; that when running my high-boost tune, my car has been down on power all year long. I've been gaining time as compared to last year in the corners with more aggression, more disregard for tire life, and most recently Shep's upgraded rear diff. I'm hoping it's just a boost leak; perhaps the stock BOV but we'll see.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The November 2010 issue of GRM is out! The cover story is the UTCC (Ultimate Track Car Challenge) held again this year at VIR. The UTCC is an invitation only event and I jumped at the opportunity. I set out on the 900 mile trek alone to a brand new track and it was an amazing adventure.
6 days and 2100 miles later I came home with a best lap of 2:11.098 and a new tow truck (the other literally died on the way out). The car performed flawlessly over 200+ miles of excruciating 99-103 degree days with tons of humidity. VIR instantly became my favorite track with my lap speeds reaching 140+ on both the front & back straights, and about 120mph at the entrance to the climbing esses.
My class included lots of 500-600hp Vipers, Vettes, Porsches, Mustangs, etc as their classing system was relatively simple and unlimited. In the end I finished 14th in class but I didn't go for the results, I went for the experience and it was insane!